[ Bees buzzing ]
-Walk into the backyard of this Seattle home
and you'll hear it.
The hypnotic sound of thousands of bees.
This is where you'll find beekeeper David Reyes.
David has been tending hives for seven years
and is still in awe of their complex universe.
-You know, they're what we call a superorganism,
meaning that, you know, without a beekeeper,
they kind of do their own thing.
They know how to organize themselves,
They know how to defend themselves.
and then they create this great product, which is honey.
-Honey bees live in colonies of thousands,
with one majestic queen,
who lays up to 3,000 eggs a day.
There's also an army of worker bees, all female,
and then there are the male bees, the drones,
whose only job is to mate, and then they die.
Sorry, guys.
All spring and into summer,
the worker bees are busy collecting pollen and nectar.
Each bee will travel up to three miles from their hive
and visit 50 to 100 flowers during one collection trip.
That nectar gets converted to honey for them to eat,
and the excess is ready to be harvested.
-So, this is a frame of capped honey.
So, all that white stuff you see is actually wax
and then underneath it is the honey that we will extract.
-To extract the honey,
the wax caps need to be removed from the cells,
and the uncapped frames are spun in an extractor,
then strained twice to remove any debris.
Finally, the liquid gold is bottled,
labeled, and ready to be enjoyed.
Backyard beekeeping can be very rewarding if done properly.
It can also be time consuming, expensive,
and physically demanding.
So, what's the best way to start?
-One would be to take a class,
and two would be to find a local beekeeping club
to just start developing, you know, relationships
with other beekeepers.
-There are regulations about how many hives you can have
and where they can be placed.
So, getting educated is key,
which brings us to some common misconceptions about bees.
First, not all bees can sting.
Second, not all bees make honey.
And last, not all bees are social bees that live in hives.
In fact, of the 20,000 species of bees across the world,
only 4% are honey producers, and only 8% live in hives.
Dave Hunter, founder of Crown Bees in Woodinville
and an expert on native bees, explains.
-So out of all these bees in North America,
90% of them are solitary,
meaning every single female bee is a queen.
She lays her eggs and she survives six weeks,
and the eggs she laid this year are next year's bees.
Where do they nest?
Three quarters will nest in the ground,
then maybe 20%, 25% nest in holes in a tree or a reed.
-These native bees, like the carpenter bee,
mining bee, squash bee and bumblebee, to name a few,
are really the unsung heroes of the pollinator world.
Without native bees and non-native honey bees,
one-third of the fruits and vegetables we eat
would simply not exist.
We rely on both of them.
However, they spread pollen in very different ways.
Honey bees carry their pollen stuck to their hind legs,
so 95% of pollen heads back to the hive.
Native bees are messier.
-They belly flop into flowers, dry pollen on their sides.
Next flower, belly-flopping in.
The pollen's falling off with every single trip,
and so, 95% of pollen is spread.
-Clearly, native bees are essential to agriculture,
and they're starting to get the attention they deserve,
which is important
because they're declining at a rapid rate.
Competition with honey bees is part of the problem.
Too many hives can overwhelm an area,
pushing native bees away from food sources.
-I'm doing my part by planting a lot of pollinator plants
for both of them.
If we did that on a bigger scale,
then they could coexist better.
-Whether it's pesticides across the country
or where we remove their habitat --
they don't have the food or where they used to nest
or we've introduced disease,
the common denominator is us.
-Dave's goal is to create flourishing communities
of bee raisers
by providing high quality native bees,
bee houses, and guidance for customers all over the country.
These cavity nesting bees, like mason bees and leafcutter bees,
who expertly line their nests with leaves,
are virtually stingless,
and require little maintenance,
making them easy to raise.
-How can we help these bees thrive?
Part of it's education.
What you've learned here, spread to others.
And lastly, if you're in a place where you can raise bees,
try to do so.
-The most important thing we can do for all bees
is to plant more pollinator friendly gardens,
choose native plants with staggered bloom times,
and put away the pesticides.
Also, create nesting sites
by allowing areas of your yard to just go wild.
State and local agencies are already taking steps
to help pollinators.
Seattle City Light, for example,
has transformed several of its properties,
like this magnolia substation, into pollinator habitats.
-It's tough being a bee,
and I think the more that people learn how to help them succeed
and think through their success,
I think the world will be a better place.
♪♪
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